Turkey protesters ‘to stay in park’ despite PM concession

Statesman News Service | June 24, 2013 6:55 pm

Istanbul, 15 June: Turkish protesters today refused to budge from an Istanbul park at the centre of nationwide anti-government demonstrations after rejecting a government olive branch aimed at ending two weeks of deadly unrest. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s offer to halt the redevelopment of Gezi Park that first ignited the mass protests was presented as a major concession but after conferring all night the protesters said their movement was bigger than a conservation struggle. “We will continue our resistance in the face of any injustice and unfairness taking place in our country,” the Taksim Solidarity group, seen as most representative of the protesters, said in a statement. “This is only the beginning.” The decision looked set to inflame tensions in a crisis that has posed the biggest challenge yet to the decade-long rule of Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted government. afp